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Thanks to a new law, Scott Dolich's Bent Brick tavern can sell wine in growlers or in the repurposed wine bottles that Dolich offers.Sunny Strader/The Oregonian

Something has changed about the way we buy wine in Oregon. And this may directly affect your Independence Day plans.

Here's the scoop: As of April, any Oregon wine shop, grocery, wine bar or restaurant offering wine on tap (from kegs) may now also sell bulk wine to go, in the same way that you can purchase beer by the growler at brewpubs and taverns. You can even bring your own container, purchasing up to 2 gallons at once. The law also applies to hard cider.

That's where your July Fourth plans come in. Not that I'm recommending it (plastic does not react well with wine), but you could, theoretically, fill a 2-gallon plastic Coleman spigoted jug with fine Oregon wine and serve it to your friends at your barbecue, as you would Gatorade on the sidelines of a soccer game.

Betcha didn't know that, did you? Neither did most of the wine-shop owners I called in the Portland area, including the bartender at Caps & Corks, a bottle shop and pub at Northwest 17th Avenue and Lovejoy Street.

But just a block north of Caps & Corks at The Bent Brick, chef Scott Dolich's tavern at Northwest 17th Avenue and Marshall Street, the wine list is on-tap only, with 16 offerings available by the glass, carafe or half-carafe. So Dolich is giving Oregon's new "wine growler" law a whirl. Patrons can bring in their own growlers, bottles, wineskins or whatever, or, for a $1 deposit, purchase a repurposed wine bottle that Bent Brick staffers have scrubbed clean and fitted with a new screwtop closure.

Less than a mile away, at Local Choice Produce Market in the Pearl District, customers pay $5 for a 1-liter growler (called a "winer" for this purpose) and choose from four wines on tap at an in-store wine bar. Prices vary depending on the producer, but co-owner Don Sader estimates that customers get the equivalent of a free glass of wine every time they have their "winer" refilled.

Another early adopter is The Wine Cellar, a bottle shop and wine bar on Northwest Saltzman Road in Cedar Mill, where owner Erin Palmer is in the midst of expanding her wine-on-tap selection from six to nine. And lest you think that bulk wine's sole purpose is entertaining crowds, Palmer is selling empty bottles that are smaller than standard, at 500 milliliters, for those weeknight customers who don't care to consume an entire bottle of wine in one sitting.

The driving force behind House Bill 2443 -- signed into law by Gov. John Kitzhaber in April and known informally as the "wine growler law" -- was Kara Olmo, co-owner of Wooldridge Creek Winery in Southern Oregon's Applegate Valley and a director on the Oregon Wine Board. Olmo spent a relatively stress-free year lobbying, with the help of the Oregon Winegrowers Association, to get the bill passed, thanks to unanimous support from the legislature, the governor's office and the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. "It was neat to see so many different entities working together for a program that just makes sense," says Olmo. "It makes business sense; and it makes environmental sense for business and consumers."

Olmo was inspired by the small wine shops she had visited in Europe, where customers bring in clean, empty wine bottles for merchants to refill from a cask with a spigot. Here in Oregon, Olmo says, the program favors local producers, who fill kegs at their wineries and deliver directly to local stores, restaurants and venues, such as the Britt Festivals in Jacksonville.

In Portland, Olmo's wholesaler Mark Strelcheck of Cask Wine Brokers has been busy educating wine-bar owners and shopkeepers on the ins and outs of the new law. "I tell everyone to logo their growlers," says Strelcheck. "It gives customers the conscious thought to go back and have it refilled in the same place. We're going to have to spend the next three years getting consumers on board with this new way of buying wine."

At the Progress Ridge New Seasons Market in Beaverton, shoppers can choose from four rotating wines on tap; the North Williams Avenue location, slated to open in the fall, will be outfitted with two wine taps. New Seasons wine buyer Toni Ketrenos is enthusiastic about the new law. "I think it's really cool and exciting," Ketrenos says. "We see it as the next step in sustainability. If you take bottles, corks and capsules out of the waste stream, that's just great. We are looking for ways to reduce the carbon footprint and support our local producers."

But Ketrenos admits that there are challenges to the new system. She encourages customers to open their growler wines within a week, and drink them within a day or two, because the wines haven't been bottled professionally for a long shelf life. New Seasons sells an inert gas compound, called Private Preserve ($10.50), that customers can squirt into the "headspace" of their growler or bottle if they want to be sure their wine will keep. The supermarket also prominently displays bottle brushes near the wine taps, because customers are responsible for ensuring that return-visit bottles are squeaky-clean.

But are the New Seasons on-tap wines cheap? A re-usable bottle costs $5 at the grocery store. Fill it up with, say, a fresh, creamy and citrusy Helioterra Willamette Valley Pinot Blanc and you're out $10 for a half-liter (two-thirds of a typical wine bottle) or $20 for a liter (the equivalent of a bottle plus a third). Meanwhile, an airtight standard 750 milliliter bottle of the same wine is just $16. And that includes the glass bottle, with its attractive label.

So at New Seasons, you're only saving between a buck and $1.30 each time you fill up -- and you'll have to fill up five times to recoup the cost of your growler, if you purchase it at the store. (Note: New Seasons is still testing the program, and other store and wine bars are offering greater discounts on their bulk wines.)

All the same, you're supporting local winemakers, keeping packaging out of the waste stream and purchasing up to 2 gallons of wine for your family and friends at that Independence Day picnic. So go ahead: Fill up that Coleman party jug. It comes in two color options: red and white, or white and blue.